Tuesday, 18 September 2007

The Fox, Shoreditch

I'm not sure whether it's a good or bad thing that The Fox in Shoreditch is a very good place to eat. On the one hand the food is accomplished, the service sprightly and friendly, and the atmosphere is pubby and informal. On the other hand, I work just above it, and being that this is my 5th day in the job and I've already cracked and had a meal there doesn't bode well for my ability to resist repeat journeys throughout the rest of the year. I only hope my body and bank account can cope with it.

Fortunately, thanks to the incredibly reasonably priced lunchtime menu, maybe my bank account will not suffer too much after all. To start, I had a red onion and red wine soup, a bit sweet but otherwise good and served with crispy bread coated with parmesan. Towards the bottom of the bowl I bit down on a whole black peppercorn which was probably a mistake but really improved the flavour of the soup - perhaps it just needed more pepper to balance the sugar from the onions. Otherwise, nicely done.

Then, a herby pork chop, grilled with rosemary and seved on top of "greens" (chard I think) and lentils. The chard was crispy but slightly underseasoned, the lentils were so-so and the pork ever so slightly dry, but the flavour from the fat and the rosemary were brilliant.

The best was to come though - all this good food, served efficiently and with grace, came to less than £15. The house bread is worth a mention too, served in a very generous portion considering I was on my own, and with smooth unsalted butter. Good stuff.

I imagine I will be back reasonably soon, if only to try the Lobster and Chips (£18) which was begging to be eaten but I couldn't really justify of a random Tuesday lunchtime. That's more of a Friday dish I think. Here's to next Friday...